Communication systems that allow communication of data from a home or office through a wide area network are widely used. Enabling infrastructure for such communications, and others, often includes a digital subscriber line access multiplexer (DSLAM). A DSLAM includes a plurality of line cards. A line card refers to an integrated circuit card disposed in the DSLAM. A line card includes one or more modems for converting data received from a customer's home or office to a format suitable for transmission over the Internet and for formatting data received from the Internet for transmission to a customer's home. Such line cards include a plurality of electrical components, many of which require testing before sale or use of the line card.
Testing of such components is often difficult or expensive both due to the number of components to be tested as well as expensive equipment conventionally required. For example, a frequency analyzer is sometimes used to perform a filter sweep, in which a plurality of signals at varying frequencies are transmitted through the line card and the resulting signals are measured with a frequency analyzer. Such procedure is both time consuming and expensive, particularly because a frequency analyzer is an expensive piece of equipment. Expense also arises from the manpower required in such a time consuming procedure.